Black (TV series)
| Black | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Hangul | 블랙 |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Studio Dragon |
| Written by | Choi Ran |
| Directed by | Kim Hong-sun |
| Starring | |
| Composer | Nam Hye-seung |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
| Original language | Korean |
| No. of episodes | 18 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producer | Kim Ryun-hee
Jongsik Kim Jaejun Song |
| Production company | iWill Media |
| Distributor |
|
| Release | |
| Original network | OCN |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital |
| Original release | October 14 – December 10, 2017 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Black (Korean: 블랙; RR: Beullaek) is a 2017 fantasy-thriller South Korean television series starring Song Seung-heon, Go Ara, Lee El and Kim Dong-jun. It aired on OCN from October 14 to December 10, 2017 on Saturdays and Sundays at 22:20 (KST) time slot.[1][2][3][4]
Synopsis[]
Black is the story of a grim reaper who is forced to track down his fugitive partner. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a series of cold case murders from 20 years ago. Investigating the murders complicates the reaper's primary role of guiding the deceased to their respective afterlife, especially after he falls in love with a mortal woman - which leads him to break supernatural rules against involvement in human affairs.[5][6]
Cast[]
Main[]
- Song Seung-heon as Han Moo-gang (Detective) / Black (Grim Reaper #444)/ Kim Joon
- Choi Seung-hun as young Han Moo-gang
- Han Moo-Gang newly joins the detective team of the Regional Crime Unit in order to find out the truth of a case that happened 20 years before. After his death, he is possessed by the messenger of hell, No.444. When Han Moo-Gang dies unexpectedly, the bracelet Kang Ha-ram gave to Kim Joon appears on his hand, so Kang Ha-ram mistakes him for her childhood first love, "Joon Oppa".
- Go Ara as Kang Ha-ram
- Ock Ye-rin as child Kang Ha-ram
- Choi Myung-bin as young Kang Ha-ram
- A woman who can foresee death[7] as a dark shadow looming over someone which turns out to be a grim reaper following them to their moment of death.
- Lee El as Yoon Soo-wan
- Song Soo-hyun as young Yoon Soo-wan
- A doctor who is in love with Han Moo-gang. She was adopted by Kim Joon's family decades prior to the main storyline, and was the victim of several filmed sexual assaults by the perpetrators of the serial murders. Her real name is Kim Sun-young.[7]
- Kim Dong-jun as Oh Man-soo
- Lee Seung-woo as child Oh Man-soo
- Lee Geon-ha as young Oh Man-soo
Supporting[]
People around Moo-gang[]
- Kim Won-hae as Na Gwang-gyun / Crazy Dog
- as Bong Man-shik
- Lee Chul-min as Oh Soo-tae
- Huh Jae-ho as Park Gwi-nam[9]
- Ji Su-won as Seo Young-hwa
- She is the mother of Han Moo-gang and the adoptive mother of Kim Joon. She is a cardiologist who is also responsible for killing Kim Joon as she harvested his heart for her son Moo-gang to live prior to the series. Towards the end of the series, she was confronted by her angered son Moo-gang, who is possessed by the grim reaper (which is the soul of Kim Joon), after she murdered his older brother two decades ago. In the end of the series, she writes a note in which she apologizes to both Moo-gang and Kim Joon before she commits suicide from drug overdose.
People around Ha-ram[]
- Kim Jung-young as Choi Soon-jung, Ha-ram's mother
- Lee Si-won as young Choi Soon-jung
- She is the mother of Ha-ram who recognizes Han Moo-gang as the Grim Reaper when it glows orange on his neck and wants him to stay away from her daughter.
- Kim Hyung-min as Kang Soo-hyuk, Ha-ram's father
- He is the father of Ha-ram who is the previous Grim Reaper #444 and was killed by Wang Yong-chun.
- Go Seung-bo as Hoon-seok, Ha-ram's stepbrother
- Park Jung-hak as Ha-ram's stepfather
Grim Reapers[]
- Kim Tae-Woo as Grim Reaper #444
- Park Doo-shik[10] as Je Soo-dong / Grim Reaper #419
- Jo Jae-yoon as Grim Reaper #007
- as Grim Reaper #416
- Jung Joon-won as Jang Hyun-soo, #416 real form
- A friend of Kim Joon who was killed in the Mujin Time Mart incident. Somewhere in the middle of the series, #007 transforms him into his real form.
People around Man-soo[]
- Lee Do-kyung as Oh Chun-soo, Man-soo's father
- Choi Min-chul as Oh Man-ho, Man-soo's half-brother
- Choi Won-hong as Oh Sang-min, Man-ho's son
- Kim Jae-young as Leo / Kim Woo-shik, a Kpop star
- as young Kim Woo-shik
- Oh Cho-hee as Tiffany / Lee Young-hee
- Kim Young-sun as Man-soo's mother
Others[]
- Lee Hae-young as Min Jae-hong
- Woo Hyun as Wang Yong-chun, man with spider tattoo
- Lee Kwan-hoon as Chen (man with missing finger)
- Bae Jung-hwa as Han Jin-sook
- Lee Hyo-je as Kim Joon / Han Moo-chan
- Kim Joon is the older brother of Han Moo-gang, and is renamed Han Moo-chan after being adopted by Moo-gang's mother. Kim Joon is the only person to have witnessed all of the serial murders that happened two decade prior to the storyline. He was shot in the head by Kang Ha-ram (revealed in the last 2 episodes) shortly afterward, but survives to call his adoptive mother, Seo Young-hwa, for help. She eventually finds Joon unconscious, and assumed that he was on the brink of death, so she uses her skills as a cardiac surgeon to secretively harvests his heart to save Moo-gang. To cover up his death from arousing suspicion due to his missing heart, she hides his body in a car and pushes it off of a cliff into the ocean. This incident leads Kim Joon to become a grim reaper, Black (#444), who then loses all of good memories from when he was living as Kim Joon. Black as a grim reaper is cold and collected, and prior to the events of the main storyline, is unswayed by the emotionally ridden nature of death, something unusual for grim reapers which he takes much pride in.
- Moo-gang's mother then moves to the US, where Moo-gang is raised. Eventually, Moo-gang returns to Korea to become a detective and investigate his brother's mysterious death, running into Ha-ram when ordering dinner. Eventually, he discovers her ability of premonition and tries to save lives using her gift, but is himself killed in a mysterious hostage situation.
- Meanwhile, Black is having issues training a new partner in the grim reaper work, and eventually is forced to find him when he goes missing. He discovers Moo-gang's corpse and inhabits it, and realizing his luck with finding a detective with deep connections to a person capable of seeing other grim reapers, lives as Moo-gang to hunt down his missing comrade.
- No Tae-yeop as Steven Yoo
- Lee Joon-seo as Park Seung-chul
- Song Min-hyung as Woo Byung-sik
- Cha Chun-hwa as Clara
- Yeon Jae-wook as Lee Byung-tae
Production[]
- The script reading of the cast was held on July 24, 2017.[11][12]
- The series was under negotiation with Netflix for a simultaneous streaming deal, and it is currently available on the streaming service.[13][14][15]
Original soundtrack[]
| Black Original soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Recorded | 2017 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Language |
|
| Label |
|
Part 1[]
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Take Me Out" | Nam Tae-hyun | 4:31 |
| 2. | "Take Me Out" (Inst.) | Nam Tae-hyun | 4:31 |
| Total length: | 9:02 | ||
Part 2[]
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Like a Film" | leeSA (리싸) | 3:37 |
| 2. | "Like a Film" (Inst.) | leeSA (리싸) | 3:41 |
| Total length: | 7:18 | ||
Part 3[]
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Another Me" | Han Min-chae (민채) | 4:35 |
| 2. | "Another Me" (Inst.) | Han Min-chae (민채) | 4:41 |
| Total length: | 9:16 | ||
Ratings[]
In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
| Ep. | Original broadcast date | Average audience share | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AGB Nielsen[16] | TNmS | ||||
| Nationwide | Seoul | Nationwide | |||
| 1 | October 14, 2017 | 2.141% | 2.416% | 2.0% | |
| 2 | October 15, 2017 | 3.876% | 4.170% | 3.0% | |
| 3 | October 21, 2017 | 3.963% | 4.715% | 2.7% | |
| 4 | October 22, 2017 | 4.318% | 5.080% | 3.7% | |
| 5 | October 28, 2017 | 3.595% | 4.229% | 2.9% | |
| 6 | October 29, 2017 | 4.087% | 4.714% | 3.6% | |
| 7 | November 4, 2017 | 3.580% | 4.427% | 3.0% | |
| 8 | November 5, 2017 | 3.247% | 3.727% | 2.6% | |
| 9 | November 11, 2017 | 2.966% | 3.636% | 2.3% | |
| 10 | November 12, 2017 | 3.409% | 4.245% | 3.6% | |
| 11 | November 18, 2017 | 2.535% | 2.795% | 2.1% | |
| 12 | November 19, 2017 | 3.074% | 3.613% | 2.9% | |
| 13 | November 25, 2017 | 2.532% | 2.707% | 2.4% | |
| 14 | November 26, 2017 | 3.038% | 3.234% | 2.8% | |
| 15 | December 2, 2017 | 2.453% | 2.395% | 2.0% | |
| 16 | December 3, 2017 | 3.470% | 3.810% | 2.6% | |
| 17 | December 9, 2017 | 3.085% | 3.403% | 2.2% | |
| 18 | December 10, 2017 | 4.181% | 4.518% | 3.7% | |
| Average | 3.308% | 3.769% | 2.8% | ||
- This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
References[]
- ^ "Song Sung-heon, Go A-ra cast in OCN drama". Korea JoongAng Daily. 5 August 2017.
- ^ Mukhopadhyay, Riddhiman. "OCN's Black: Ara and Song Seung Heon confirmed for grim reaper drama". IB Times. International Business Times, Singapore Edition. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Lee, Ye-eun. "[단독] 송승헌X고아라, OCN 드라마 '블랙' 출연 확정…하반기 방영". Naver (in Korean). The Financial News. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Kim, Sol-ji. "OCN 측 "'블랙', 송승헌·고아라 출연 확정…올 하반기 편성"(공식)". Naver (in Korean). MBN. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Choi, Na-young. "[공식입장] OCN '블랙', 송승헌X고아라 "긍정검토 중"". Naver (in Korean). Osen. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ "5 Korean Horror Dramas You Should Watch During Halloween". Viu. 2017-10-16. Archived from the original on 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
- ^ Jump up to: a b <블랙> 송승헌-고아라-이엘-김동준, 대본 리딩 현장 공개!. iMBC (in Korean). iMBC. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Jo, Yoon-seon. "[공식] 김동준, OCN '블랙' 출연 확정…재벌 2세役". Naver (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Jo, Gyeong-yi. [단독]'귓속말' 허재호, 차기작은 '블랙'‥송승헌과 호흡. Naver (in Korean). Osen. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Hong, Se-young. [단독] 박두식, ‘블랙’ 전격 합류…송승헌·고아라와 호흡. Naver (in Korean). Sports DongA. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Hong, Se-young. "[단독] 송승헌x고아라, OCN '블랙' 캐스팅…안방복귀 하나". Naver (in Korean). Sports DongA. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Kim, Na-hee. "[Oh!쎈 톡] 송승헌·고아라·김동준, '블랙'으로 뭉친다..오늘 대본리딩". Naver (in Korean). Osen. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Yun, Suh-young. "K-drama industry finds new breakthrough with Netflix". KTimes. The Korea Times. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Chang, Dong-woo; Youn, Go-eun. "(News Focus) More TV shows turning to Netflix as China's culture ban persists". Yonhap News. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Black on Netflix
- ^ "Nielsen Korea". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
External links[]
- Official website (in Korean)
- Black at Studio Dragon (in Korean)
- Black at iWill Media (in Korean)
- Black at HanCinema
- Black at IMDb
Categories:
- OCN television dramas
- Television series by Studio Dragon
- Television series by IWill Media
- Korean-language television shows
- 2017 South Korean television series debuts
- 2017 South Korean television series endings
- South Korean thriller television series
- South Korean fantasy television series
- South Korean romance television series
- Korean-language Netflix exclusive international distribution programming